Major champion Sergio Garcia says LIV Golf players “have not heard anything” as media speculation over the future financing of the breakaway league intensifies.
The Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) was on the verge of cutting its support for the LIV Golf League, which hosts an annual event in Adelaide.
Anthony Kim won the LIV Golf Adelaide tournament in February. (AAP: MAtt Turner)
But The Financial Times report was at odds with what players were told at the beginning of the year, according to Garcia.
The 46-year-old, who captains LIV team Fireballs GC, spoke to media on Wednesday ahead of this week’s tournament in Mexico City.
Responding to questions about LIV’s future, Garcia said he could only go on what players were told by PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan.
“That is not what Yasir told us at the beginning of the year,” Garcia said, as reported by the BBC.
“[He told us] that he is behind us, that they have a project of many years. There are always rumours and I cannot comment anything more to you than what we know.”
LIV Golf formally launched in late 2021 with the backing of PIF and Australian great Greg Norman as the inaugural CEO.
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There were eight tournaments held in its maiden season in 2022, with high-profile players including Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, and Phil Mickelson joining the league.
Adelaide became the home of LIV Golf in Australia in 2023, when the tournament played at The Grange Golf Club.
Grange is scheduled to continue hosting the annual Adelaide event before a slated move to Kooyonga Golf Club in 2027, and then the redeveloped North Adelaide Golf Course in 2028.
The PIF has reportedly poured more than $US5 billion ($6.96 billion) into LIV Golf since it launched with lucrative contracts and massive tournament purses.
Documents lodged with the UK’s Companies House last October showed LIV Golf’s UK arm — which is responsible for the golf tour’s operations outside the United States — lost $US461.3 million in 2024.
That is on top of $US393.9 million lost in 2023 and $US243.7 million lost in the 18 months to the end of 2022.
With total losses amounting to more than $US1.1 billion over three years, the company’s directors wrote that there was “a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt over the Group and Parent Company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
In January, the BBC reported a senior source in Saudi Arabia said the kingdom was re-evaluating PIF’s investments, with a potential shift towards AI and technology.
ABC/Reuters